Blackheath
***
"Give it a rest," Giulia said, lugging in a water container. Blackheath continued pacing up and down the stone room, using his whole torso to pull his bad leg along.
"What's so important you've got to kill yourself getting out of here for?" she asked, sitting down to fill the water jug while she watched him. He didn't reply, just concentrated on moving his leg, forcing the muscle to stretch and work through the pain.
"You're making the floor sweaty. That's a trip hazard, you know. OH&S."
He sat down next to her heavily, leaning on the wall to catch his breath. She threw him a rag and he dragged it over his face while she poured him some water.
"Come on, let's have a look." She tugged off his jeans, peeled back the bandages and examined the reddened, swollen scab where she'd cut to remove the bullet, and the seeping drainage holes she'd punched to leach out the infection. Blackheath thought of Bhaskar's leg, and how this woman's skills could have made a big difference.
"Well, you're squeezing the infection out any rate," she noted, cleaning it up and re bandaging. Her hands rested on his thigh.
"I bet it's a girl," she said thoughtfully, and he stiffened.
"It is, isn't it?" she said, her voice harder somehow, "You're dying to get back to a girl, aren't you?"
He brushed her hands off roughly and pulled on his jeans. It was none of her business. She watched him for a moment, her face closed, then left.
He rolled onto his side scowling. She probably thought he was after some Soul floozie, shut up in her ivory tower in the Soul cities. If only she knew. Nothing could be further from the truth.